Rachel Blum

Rachel Blum is an Assistant Professor in the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center and the Department of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. Her research examines how political parties interact with and shape U.S. political institutions. She also specializes in political methodology, with a particular focus on computational methods to analyze large datasets, text-as-data and political networks.

In her book, How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics (University of Chicago Press, fall 2020), Blum uses a variety of original datasets and analytic techniques to explain how a faction like the Tea Party was able to take over a major political party. Blum's ongoing research projects examine the role of party factions in Congress, party nomination endorsements, primary contests, and amicus curiae networks. She has also published in outlets including Perspectives on Politics, PS: Political Science & Politics, and Political Science Research Methods.

Professor Blum received her Ph.D. in 2016 from Georgetown University. Prior to her appointment at the University of Oklahoma she held a faculty appointment at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Publications:

Rachel M. Blum, "How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics" (September 2020: University of Chicago Press).

Rachel M. Blum and Christopher S. Parker, “Trump-ing Foreign Affairs: The Role of Status Threat in Mass Foreign Policy Preferences,” Perspectives on Politics 17, no. 3 (2019): 737-755.

Sarah E. Croco, Elizabeth Suhay, Rachel Blum, Lilliana Mason, Hans Noel, Jonathan Ladd, and Michael A. Bailey, “Student-Run Exit Polls 101,” PS: Political Science & Politics 52, no. 2 (2019): 361-366.

Solomon Messing, Patrick Van Kessel, Adam Hughes, Nick Judd, and Rachel M. Blum, “Partisan Conflict and Congressional Outreach,” a Pew Research Center Report (February 2017).

Rachel M. Blum and Clyde Wilcox, “A Tangled Web: Religion and the Regime in the US,” in Religion and Regimes: Support, Separation, and Opposition, eds.Ted Jelen and Tehran Tamadonfar (Lexington: Lexington Books, 2013).

Research Interests:

American Politics, political parties, Congress, political activism, statistical methodology, political networks, text-based analysis.